Red Seeds
by Bearbutt
Summary: Hades watches Persephone play in her mother's garden, and for the first time in years there is something he wants. Apologies to any Deadly Premonition fans for the title of this.


**Anyone who's aware of the myth of Hades and Persephone will know this story. The bit about the change in Persephone's is true. The older version is the tale of Kore and very similar to Alice in Wonderland in some ways. But, the Greeks were kind of like the Alan Moore of mythology and felt the need to 'throw a little rape in there'.**

**Hooray for tragic allusions!**

**To be completely honest, this pairing has started to consume my life. As much as I am hesitant to give Nolan any credit, ever, their relationship was very well played out and left me feeling heartbroken over just a few scenes. It also shows research into their characters, because they dun sex in the comics. (Then Talia gets all tsundere and Bane gets all butthurt and rapey. Yeesh.)**

***Ahem***

**Suggested reading: Epic II from the album Hadestown, anything from that album in general, as it is super awesome.**

**EDIT: It was pointed out to me that my usage of Spanish in this fic was incorrect. Bane should have been calling Talia Amada instead of Amado, because of different genders in romantic languages and all that jazz. So, being a perfectionist, I re-uploaded this with the proper gendered word.**

Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl. She was the daughter of the goddess of the harvest. Each day she would play in her mother's garden. The garden was situated on Earth, a dwelling not meant for the gods. The girl's power was like that of her mother's and everywhere her foot planted, a shoot of flowers would blossom. She would twirl and laugh without a care. In her mind she was alone.

However, she was not alone.

A young man had taken to watching the girl as she danced. He too was no ordinary man, but a king, a god. His kingdom was below the Earth, the underworld. Like the death he ruled, each thing he touched turned bare like ash. A god, but still only a man. Man's strongest weakness is his hunger.

This is not the original version of the story. A man in his previous cell taught him that the rape of the girl was added later. The first story was one of curiousity. The girl stumbled across a hole in the ground while playing. Not thinking of much else but where it could lead, she allowed herself to fall. She sought the dark because she wished to understand.

"Why do you cover your face? Mother says that in the world above it's girls who cover their heads. Are you being modest?" She is like a little bird at his feet.

Bane grunts and pushes her back through the bars. She sticks her tongue out as she scampers back to her mother's cell. If he listens hard enough he can hear the woman sing as she brushes her hair.

The child's sex is a secret kept between him, the doctor, and the child's mother. Two other prisoners helped to birth the child. Curiously, those two prisoners had their necks spun and snapped a day later. Bane protects and covets the knowledge. He does so with all knowledge.

He learns different tongues from the other inmates. Spanish, French, and Italian are all rooted in Latin and thus are easier to learn once fluent in one. Spanish is the language of his home. The words roll around his mouth, softer and more fluid than the tones of the desert.

Like a hawk, his eyes are constantly on the child. It's frequent that he'll catch her watching him watch her.

The next time she wanders into his cell he tells her the story. Both versions.

"I don't understand why she had to stay underground for half of the year." She complains.

"You see, she had eaten the fruit of the dead. Six seeds, six months. Half a year above ground, half below. It's called a parable. The story is not true, but it explains the changes in season."

"How do you know?" She asks.

"About the changing seasons? I have not always lived underground, Little One-"

"No. How do you know it's not real?"

She has him there. The girl flinches, he must look as if he is about to strike her. Instead he gives her a hunk of bread.

"Never believe what you cannot see with your own two eyes." He teaches her.

"Then I don't believe in the world above ground."

She is a smart child.

...

Bane teaches her games of strategy. They play chess with pieces of rock he's chipped from the walls. She plays fast and loose with strategy, not caring if she wins. She is a child who bores easily.

The girl surprises him when she puts his king in check with her pawn.

He asks he why she chose the pawn for her strike.

"It's the little people who make the big changes. The ones you least expect."

Her wisdom comes from experience. Her experience comes from stabbing other prisoners for food scraps. The locked door of her cage provides shelter from their jeering and rage. Bane can see the mother grow weaker with less sun, watching her child turn into a creature of darkness.

It is three days later when he spots some of the wounded men trading food and favours to the doctor and he knows.

The door is left unlocked 'accidentally', and the men in their lust and violence forget their vengeance on the child and exact their will on the mother. Bane fights his way through the mob to the girl. He shields her with his body and his stories.

He lights a fire that night and tells them of the wealth given to them by the Titan, Prometheus. How his liver was pecked out by an eagle every day, then regone to be eaten again.

"I don't like the gods very much." She says when her tears have dried.

Bane kisses her head. They share an apple that night and are very rich indeed.

...

Like all things, his happiness cannot last. They are waiting for their rations among the prisoners when specks of blood begin to litter the floor beneath her feet. Bane scoops her up and rushes her back to his cell. They go hungry that night. The jeers from the other prisoners return, filthier than before. He tells her the other version of the story.

"She left the light because she wanted to meet darkness. Then the girl had to return to the light, so she climbed back up the hole where so many others had failed. Do you hear me, Amada?"

...

It is midday when they go to the wall. She can feel the hunger of the pit pulling her back down, but the sun is calling her back. Back to the land of her mother.

The girl stops in her ascent to look down upon the face she had come to love. Their eyes meet and she leaps. Up and out into the daylight. The world of the living materializes before her. Flowers do not bloom where she steps.

Remembering her modesty, Talia pulls the hood over her head.

...

The men of the world beneath the sky are just as twisted and greedy as those below the ground. Frankly, she misses the honestly. Many reach for her flesh, hungry for the gifts of her youth. Their blood stains her blade the same as any rat.

...

Talia has no idea what she's doing with her life. All she has is a name and the word of a few drug farmers. A promise to her mother and her beloved is what keeps her going. She will find the man called Ducard and take him back to the grave he sent her to.

She finds him in Paris.

Rather, he finds her.

"I've been told you are looking for me." His accent is English.

It surprises her, but she doesn't let it show.

"I have. My name is Talia Head. I think you know who I am."

He looks through her, clearly thinking of someone else, as he reaches out to touch her hair. Talia stays still, though she wants to move from his reach. Who is he to assume such proximity.

"Such fire in those eyes. Flame without cause burns until there is nothing left. Let me tell you about the League of Shadows.

...

It is a month and a half later when they return to her hole in the ground. She pays the ferrymen in bullets before crossing the river Styx.

Her father's men and women create chaos and blood as she searches for her dear friend. As if drawn there, she is brought a few levels down. There he leans against the foot of the stairs. He smells of decay, of pus and infection. The fire threatens to consume her.

...

It is five weeks before she can visit him again. Weakness from starvation and the anti-biotics pumped into his body have weakened his immune system. He is sleeping, his breath a rasp on a respirator. Her fingers brush at his brows and hairline. So beautiful, yet in so much pain. For her. She is not disheartened by his absence. She has waited this long.

Instead Talia goes to the local market.

It is perfect. Ruby red shell and fat enough to fit in both of her hands. She knows that if he were to hold it, the fruit would be dwarfed by his fingers. She leaves he gift on his bedside table and returns to the lessons with her father.

An Ubu gives her word that her 'servant' has begged her company. She rolls her eyes, tired of the glassye-eyed devotion her father's men treat her with. She doubts Bane begged.

He tries to smile as she enters, but it is a sick parody in a stretch of puckered scar tissue. Still, it is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

"I shee you haff brought me quite the shpectacular preshent, Amada."

A mixture of damage and drugs slur his speech. She crosses the room to the pomegrenate. Pulling a knife from her shirt, she cuts into the red husk, exposing white flesh and rosy pods. Talia's fingers shake with excitement as she brings the first freed fruit to his lips. He tries for delicacy, but his predicament leaves him noisily sucking from her fingers. It leaves her breathless and with a heat in her belly. She breaks off more and feeds him the fruit, drop by drop.

His teeth crack the seeds and she cannot tell if his lips are stained with juice or blood. Eventually, he knocks her hand away and takes the pomegrenate from her. With precision, he cuts free six seeds and brings them to her mouth one at a time.

She licks the juices from his hands because she knows her father is watching.

He does not understand. He merely adopted the dark, they were born into it.


End file.
